Nutrition and Growth: Preliminary Findings from the Round 4 Survey in Peru

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Young Lives provides an excellent opportunity to follow the growth and nutrition of two cohorts of Peruvian children from infancy through childhood and then from childhood to adulthood while also studying household food security and the quality of food available for children as measured by the variety of the diet they consume. The Round 4 survey carried out in 2013 documents that stunting has decreased over time with lower rates among the Younger Cohort at age 12 compared with the Older Cohort when they were the same age in 2006, but gaps between urban and rural children remains. Overweight and obesity has increased most markedly in the Older Cohort girls (aged 19 in 2013), especially among those who are now mothers. Although there has been a small increase in households experiencing severe food insecurity, there has also been a larger increase in the number of households who are now food-secure and while the quality of the diet measured by dietary diversity has not changed, there is some indication of increased consumption of some animal-source foods, which provide easily assimilated essential micronutrients necessary for health and optimum growth.